A Friend in Need
by zeuskiller13
Summary: FIXED IT: This is a sequel to the Walls of the Rivalry so read that first! Ryan discovers Jake injured and unconscious.


**This is a sequel to my story "The Walls of Rivalry" I suggest you read that first. Enjoy and please review.**

It was getting late and Ryan knew it, he broke curfew frequently but this time was getting a little ridiculous. It was now 3:34 am. and the city was actually silent. Jake and Ryan had decided to get some extra hours in at the Combat Club before Jake walked to the bus at one, the last one of the night. Ryan walked to his car and jangled the keys into the lock. He made the mistake of going to the nearest bar after training. Ryan had promised to take Jake home but one broken promise would be quickly healed.

His engine roared to life and Ryan drove onto the street, he was passing the bus stop when he found him. On the ground in the middle of the street was a form laying appearing to be asleep. Ryan honked his horn muttering something about homeless people. The figure didn't move and Ryan got out of the car. His grumbles grew louder until he saw the shirt of the form. It was the exact same outfit Jake had been wearing that day, he ran to his unconscious friend.

"Jake!" Ryan shouted rolling Jake onto his back and getting the streetlights to reveal his face. A gasp of air burst into Ryan as he saw the damage. Jake was nearly unrecognizable, he held two black eyes, an obvious broken nose, both of his lips were bleeding and swelled, and held several cuts along his face, all bleeding. "Wake up, come on. Jake!" Ryan shouted trying to awaken his friend. It was all his fault, he had promised to take Jake home and now he was kneeling next to him. Jake was the first friend Ryan had that was actually his friend, not scared of him or just for money, Jake actually liked him for being Ryan. The three digit number was being typed into his phone instantly, Jake was still unconscious. It was obvious Jake was assaulted and left to bleed alone in the street.

It was ten minutes before an ambulance arrived and Jake was given proper treatment. Ryan stood to the side as they assessed his friend. Jake's shirt was cut away revealing even more blood and bruises.

"Does he have any previous injuries?" A paramedic asked Ryan.

"I-I don't know." Ryan answered, how could he not know? The paramedic nodded and went back to helping Jake. Ryan watched as they loaded him into the ambulance and the doors closed.

"You can follow us to the hospital. You should call your friends family." The man said before climbing into the ambulance and turning the sirens and lights on before taking off down the street. Ryan watched it leave before bending down and grabbing Jake's shirt. It was his dad's shirt, Coach Tyler, was now covered in blood and cut in pieces. Ryan put it on his passenger seat before pulling his phone out, he stared at it. How could he tell Jake's mom that her son was in the hospital? They had just got their relationship healed after his mom had told Jake she blamed him for his dad's death. It took him minutes before he dialed the phone and received the sleepy voice of Jake's little brother, that just made it worse. Ryan told him to get his mom but she was already grabbing the phone.

"Yes? This is Jake's mom." She said.

"Um...Ms. Tyler, I'm Ryan McCarthy, Jake's friend. I don't know how to say this but Jake is uh... he's in the hospital." Ryan said.

"What!?" Jake's mom yelled.

"I found him in the street, hurt. He's now on his way by ambulance to the hospital, I'm heading there now."

"Alright, I'll get there as fast as I can." Jake's mom said, it was obvious she was crying. Ryan hung up and drove after the ambulance that was taking his friend to get the help he needed.

He parked by the emergency room and walked in. After talking to the nurse Ryan was seated in the waiting room as he waited for news on his friend.

It was thirty minutes before a doctor came out and sat beside Ryan, he was like all the doctors on T.V, wearing a white coat and white beard.

"Is his family coming?" The doctor asked.

"The live across the city, it will take some time." Ryan told him.

"Okay, what is the young man's name?"

"Jake Tyler. He's my friend." Ryan replied.

"Okay, well I would usually wait for the family to get here but I'll make an exception. Jake came in tonight with several injuries. His eyes were my area of concern, while they appear bad I don't think there will be any permanent injuries, however due to the swelling he is blind for now. His jaw was bruised and is now braced for a few hours. His nose was severely broken and we did our best to fix it. His torso isn't as bad but he has two broken ribs and several bruising, we checked for internal bleeding but he seems to have avoided it. We are keeping him on a light sedative to keep him asleep so the wounds can heal."

"He'll be okay though right?" Ryan asked.

"Yes, I'm more concerned about the mental injuries this might have, it's obvious this was a brutal attack and his emotions might not be their best if he wakes up, we're prepared though."

"Can I see him?" Ryan asked. The doctor smiled and motioned him to follow him, they came to door and the doctor pushed in revealing Jake laying on hospital bed. "I'll wait for his family to get here and bring them. It's really late so you should actually be going home." Ryan shook his head and the doctor nodded his understanding. Ryan took a seat next to Jake and studied his injuries. Even in his sleep Jake's brow was furrowed in pain. Ryan sat back in his seat and texted Max and Baja. The four were close friends now, they did almost everything together.

Before long the beeping of Jake's heart monitor was enough to make him fall into an uneasy sleep. It was short lived as the doctor entered the room minutes later with Jake's mother and brother. Ryan was surprised to see Charlie here so late. Jake's mom instantly took her sons hand and began to cry at the sight of his battered face. Ryan now felt the guilt weigh down down more. He was supposed to take Jake home, instead he went a bar, and now Jake was unconscious and injured. It had only been four months since Ryan had taken Jake to the hospital for glass in his arm and now he was back here.

The night passed by slowly and soon it was dawn. Ryan was the first to wake up and he instantly noticed Jake's eyes were open, so much for being blinded by the swelling.

"Hey." Ryan whispered as Jake's eyes moved over to him. Jake smiled and tried to open his mouth and began to breathe heavily when he realized he couldn't. "Jake calm down, your jaw is bruised they have a brace to heal it. It's okay calm down." Jake stared at Ryan with terrified eyes, but slowly he relaxed and his breathing calmed down. Ryan smiled again and Jake coughed and cringed.

"Yeah, look Jake I'm sorry I didn't take you home. I promised you and I really dropped the ball on this one." Ryan said but Jake just shook his head and moved his hands as if writing, Ryan understand and scurried around until he found a pen and paper. Jake wrote a message and handed it to Ryan.

It's fine, you don't need to take me everywhere. They caught me off guard anyway, didn't even get to defend myself.

"Who caught you off guard?" Jake scribbled again.

Yellow Hummer.

Ryan saw red, that was four months ago. Just let it go already! Ryan stood up and walked around the room he was furious, he'd just have to go show these guys in a yellow hummer why not to mess with Jake Tyler. In his banter Ryan didn't see as Jake wrote something else down until the paper dropped onto the floor. Ryan picked it up and read it.

It's fine, Ryan. I got their names.

Jake was smiling about it as Ryan read the last bit. "How?" was all Ryan could ask. Jake took another piece of paper.

A little help from Max and the internet.

Of course, Max could find anyone on the internet. It was actually Max that found Jake's fight from that football game online. It was also what caused Ryan to attack Jake in the first place.

"The doctor said he had you on this sleep drug, guess he was wrong on that." Ryan said looking up only to see Jake's eyes sliding closed. "Spoke too soon." It was a half hour before anyone else woke up, the doctor walked in and checked on Jake around ten.

"His swelling in the eyes has gone down incredibly fast. His jaw is looking better too. Unfortunately it seems his ribs are still as injured as before. Has he been awake at all?"

"Yeah, we had a talk this morning, well I talked he wrote." Ryan answered.

"Excellent! The sedative was very light so I thought he could wake up, I'll take off his jaw brace and when he wakes up see if he can talk okay and if so he might be able to go home today. Though I would make sure he stays in bed all day and lifts nothing heavier than thirty pounds for a nine weeks."

"Oh he'll love that." Jake's mom said. Ryan agreed with her, Jake and Ryan did intense training together. It would kill Jake not being able to do anything. As the doctor moved to unlatch the brace on Jake's cheek and shoulder his eyes shot open. Jake pulled away from the touch but slowly became aware.

"It's alright, Jake. I'm just going to take your brace off, this brace is actually an uncommon thing to use." The brace left with the doctor's hands.

"I'll count myself lucky." Jake said, his first words in hours.

"Do you feel any pain while talking?" The doctor asked. Jake shook his head, but it was obvious that made him feel dizzy.

"Are you still tired, sweetie?" His mom asked.

"A little." Jake answered, actually telling the truth.

"Actually if you could try and stay awake, I have a police officer who would like to talk to you."

"Could it wait?" His mom asked but the doctor insisted. Before long Jake was speaking to an officer and lying his head off. No he didn't know who attacked him, no he didn't remember much from that night. Ryan was surprised, what was the point of getting their names if he wasn't going to tell the police. He was also pleased he didn't need to show them the messages from this mornings talk. Before long Jake was cleared and able to head home. Ryan offered to take Jake the family home but Mrs. Tyler said they'd take the bus and meet Ryan and Jake back the apartment. Ryan shook his head, Jake's mom was very confusing.

"Alright. Let's get you home." Ryan said looking at his tired friend. Jake's lips weren't swelled anymore but the rest of his face was still covered in stitches and cuts, his were also black and blue. Ryan had let this happen, he was supposed to be there for Jake.

"Don't do that." Jake said.

"Do what?" Ryan asked.

"Blame yourself, you've been my driver everywhere, I wasn't comfortable with you driving me all the time. It was my choice to take the bus. It isn't your fault." Jake said before rubbing the injured side of his jaw.

"Than maybe you can tell me what happened." Ryan said backing out of the spot and driving onto the road.

"I missed the bus so I was just going to walk to the next one, it has a one-thirty pick up and takes me home in its route so I was going to pick it. But as I walked I felt like someone was watching me so I turned and saw one of the people from the yellow hummer. I got ready to fight him but the other two came from behind and just started wailing on me. I didn't get a chance to do much and eventually was knocked out, then I woke up in the hospital room. Is that my shirt?" Jake said pointing to the rolled up cloth on the dash, he was growing sick of the hospital gown, at least he still had his jeans on.

"Yeah," Ryan handed it to him. "I'm sorry about it, man."

"He had an extra one so it's okay, can't believe they broke my ribs though." Jake said rubbing his ribs.

"Me either, I swear when I find them-"

"No, we're not going to go after them. You just quit fighting except for sparring with me, there's no reason to break your streak. Let's just go to my house. I'm tired." Jake said leaning his head against the window. It was an hour with the morning traffic before Ryan was pulling inot Jake's apartment building. His friend was quietly snoring on his window right now and Ryan slowly shook him to not hurt his ribs. Jake slowly came awake and noticed where they were. In a few minutes Ryan was sitting in the living room with Jake waiting for his two family members to come home.

It was almost two months before Jake was with Ryan and Jean at the Combat Club. Ryan smiled as Jake walked through the open gate with his bag over his shoulder.

"Hey! Took you long enough." Ryan said.

"Yeah, it's been killing me not able to come here." Jake said reaching into his bag and pulling out gloves. Ryan took it easy that day as Jake slowly got back into the motions of the training, he was his best friend after all.

**Thank you all! I don't think there'll be a sequel to this one, unless I have a sudden brain surge. Please give your feedback and I will love you. **


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